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Epic formally asks SCOTUS to uphold contempt ruling against Apple
Epic Games has submitted its official response to Apple’s Supreme Court appeal, urging the justices to uphold the contempt ruling over App Store payment restrictions. Here are the details.
As most 9to5Mac readers probably know, Apple and Epic Games have been engaged in a lengthy legal battle since 2020, when Epic sued Apple after Fortnite was removed from the App Store.
The move came after Epic remotely activated an alternative payment system that bypassed Apple’s In-App Purchase system.
Although the court largely sided with Apple, it did rule that the company could no longer prevent developers from directing users to alternative payment methods outside the App Store.
Apple ultimately allowed those links, but imposed new restrictions, including a 27% commission on external purchases, in addition to new rules limiting how developers could display buttons and links to alternative payment methods.
Epic challenged those restrictions, and the court agreed that Apple had violated the original injunction, holding the company in civil contempt.
Apple has since attempted multiple times to overturn that ruling, arguing that the original injunction contained no explicit prohibition on imposing those restrictions.
Epic, on the other hand, argues that Apple deliberately circumvented the court order by introducing new rules designed to achieve the same result as those originally prohibited.
In May, Apple appealed to the Supreme Court, which agreed in June to hear the case. Apple submitted its opening brief in September, followed by supporting briefs from the U.S. government and several legal and business groups.
Those included the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Chamber of Progress, and several former federal antitrust enforcers. In a nutshell, the U.S. government argued that the original injunction did not clearly prohibit Apple’s 27% commission on external purchases, but maintained that the company was correctly held in contempt for restricting how developers could display external payment buttons.